Since being diagnosed with autism in my mid-30s, I’ve been re-thinking a lot of things.

I’ve spent a lifetime of trying to appear to be the same as everyone else. I’ve been watching. I’ve been studying. Every book, article, overheard conversation, brings me that little bit closer to passing for normal.

I’ve spent a long time thinking about who I ought to be.

And I thought you were all doing it too. Maybe not everyone. Maybe a few of you were in on the secret, but I assumed, as we all do, that the way I see the world is the way everyone does.

Now I know that when I don’t understand you, it’s not that I’ve missed out the rules of the game, it’s that you’re playing Monopoly whilst I’m playing Rugby Union.

It’s not that I’m coming at it from the wrong angle, it’s that I don’t have…